l82 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. V. 



custom introduced among them. They clean their hands only, which 

 they wash by filling their mouths with water and then squirting it over 

 them in intermittent streams." Now, the author's mind must have run 

 partly in the direction of this paper, for he subjoins a note : " This 

 reminds the comparative Sociologist of a similar custom prevailing 

 among the Tartars or Moguls of the Middle Ages. William of Rubruck 

 (St. Louis' envoy to the great Khan, 1253), says that, 'They never wash 

 their clothes. Cleanliness is in no more favour with the men than with 

 their ladies, and their mode of washing their faces and hands is by filling 

 their mouths with water and squirting it over them." Relation des 

 Voyages en Tartarie, Bergeron. Perhaps Chinese laundrymen, who 

 sprinkle their washing in this fashion, obtained it from their rulers, the 

 Mantchus. 



" Considered in their social condition and daily pursuits, a portion of 

 the Western Denes are nomadic, and part may be described as semi- 

 sedentary." I do not know that Father Morice anywhere refers to the 

 Denes' dislike of ancient smells, save in his " The Western Denes ; their 

 manners and customs," where he says, " The Sekanais, owing to their 

 dislike to fish, and their need of procuring fresh supplies of meat could 

 never remain for any length of time at the same place." And again: 

 " Even to this day they content themselves with circular coniferous 

 branch huts or lodges, which they construct and abandon at a moment's 

 notice, whenever their incessant peregrinations after food and peltries 

 call therefor." In regard to moral character, Father Morice writes : 

 " Making due allowance for their particular ideas of propriety, they are 

 generally modest in deportment and chaste in privacy, despite the fact 

 that several couples live together under the same roof and without 

 partitions in the house. Should I have to sketch rapidly our Denes' 

 fmoral features, I think I could, by ignoring some necessary exceptions, 

 o-ive them credit for relative morality, great honesty, intense fondness 

 for their offspring, and a general gentleness of disposition, not excluding, 

 however, occasional freaks of irascibility. But to qualify their lives and 

 o-ive their true portrait, I should immediately add that they are prone to 

 lying, addicted to gambling, naturally selfish, cowardly, and at times 

 very lazy, especially the stronger sex." But, in his notes on the 

 Western Denes, the author says : "^Our Western Denes, who usually 

 prove so cowardly against a human enemy, are so courageous when 

 matched with almost any wild beast, that among them he would not be 

 considered a man who would be afraid of a bear." 



In the same notes he writes: "The Tse'kehne are slender and bony. 



